According to early numbers from Nielsen, the quarter hour from 9 to 9:15 p.m. EST that included the president's address attracted a combined 28.1 rating in metered markets on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.

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The 15 minutes that followed immediately after that included remarks by Pelosi and Schumer registered 29.3 across those same networks.

CBS led the way with 8 million viewers, with NBC second with 7 million. ABC had 4.43 million viewers and FOX saw 2.56 million tuning in.

The early numbers also show that the Pelosi-Schumer response beat Trump by 26 percent on CNN and 15 percent on MSNBC, according to Deadline.

Deadline also notes the Trump address and Democratic response got an equal number of viewers on Fox News.

The partial government shutdown entered its 19th day on Wednesday.

Pelosi and Schumer requested and were granted airtime on all the major broadcast and cable news networks to provide their response to the president's address after Trump received the same courtesy following some deliberation on Monday afternoon by ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC.